PtM Book 17 - Chapter 14: Puppet Lighting Refinement

2/3 this week

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Cha Ming returned to wine house after the exchange, and Silent Storm, knowing he’d taken advantage of Cha Ming in their exchange, poured him drinks on the house for the rest of the night. Silence was the main course of the evening, despite the heavy crowd.

There were many reasons to return to the wine house. For one, Daoist Silent Storm owed him a favor and wouldn’t allow the elder of the Puppet lightning Sect to snatch him. For another, he didn’t strictly need his cultivation cave to recover or experiment.

As long as he kept most his main incarnation in the Clear Sky World and kept only a weaker incarnation in the wine house, his physical location was irrelevant. But to be safe, he kept an incarnation near the exit of the sanctuary.

The first thing Cha Ming did was take out the blood crystal he’d purchased from Daoist Crimson Butterfly. Unlike most blood crystals Cha Ming had seen, which where either karmically neutral or filled with filth and sin, this one contained a large amount of merit.

Cha Ming immediately recognized it as a high-level righteous blood crystal from the Righteous Blood Sect. Such a crystal would reject sinful blood cultivators violently. But for Cha Ming’s depleted righteous blood, it was an excellent supplement.

To use a righteous blood crystal, one had to first gain the crystal’s approval. Cha Ming was able to do this quite easily with his jade-colored spiritual energy. What was left of his righteous blood pool enveloped the blood crystal, then started to bubble like a spring. The total volume of blood in the blood pool grew. At the same time, much of the lingering resentment was purified. The number of golden flecks in the blood pool began to increase rapidly.

A complete transformation would take some time, so Cha Ming moved on to the next item of interest: the wind bottle. Normally, it was important to take special precautions, but here in the Clear Sky World, he could control most aspects of reality.

Inside the bottle, Cha Min was pleased to find a rare variety of wind called Leviathan’s Breath. It was difficult to find outside the northern hemisphere, and even then, it was extremely scarce.

There were four rare winds and four rare lightnings on the Chasewind Plane. The winds were known as Azure Tempest Wind, Crimson Devil Wind, Divine Astral Wind, and Leviathan’s Breath. As for the four lightnings, they were known as Puppet Lightning, Blood Lightning, Bane Lightning, and Storm God’s Wrath.

Leviathan’s breath was a dark gold wind. In its purest form, it was a peak law stitching material, but the wind in the bottle was diluted to the point that it could be considered an early law stitching grade material.

Cha Ming blended a portion of the leviathan’s breath into his existing stock of azure tempest ink. Because of the partial fusion in his energy pools, peak rune gathering grade azure tempest ink wasn’t very useful to him. Leviathan’s breath and azure tempest winds were not very compatible, but he had a decent enough stock of mediating reagents that he was able to blend them into a suitable ink.

The deep azure ink he typically used took on a golden hue. Its grade increased to the initial law stitching grade ink. The aura it gave off was no longer violent and booming but heavy and overwhelming.

Cha Ming had many paintings that he could upgrade, but not enough ink he could use to do so. The Azure Tempest Battlefield, for example, would require ten times his current stock.

Upgrading his Azure Tempest Wings was also out of the question. His body could barely handle the original set of wings. He therefore settled on recreating the Azure Wind Scar and Azure Tempest techniques. With his current level of his painting, he managed to recreate several thirty-meter tempests and quite a few fifty-meter azure wind scars.

“It’s an interesting experience, watching you drink,” Daoist Silent Storm said as Cha Ming finished the last of these paintings. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Do you take pleasure in watching other people wallow in self pity?” Cha Ming asked in a grumpy voice.

The wine house owner chuckled and poured him another glass of blighted lightning wine. “I’ve served more drinks in my lifetime than you could possibly imagine. I know the mood of my clients quite well. So no, I wasn’t referring to any particular mood, but rather, the fact that you grow stronger as you drink, without even cultivating. I’ve known people to make sudden breakthroughs while enjoying a drink, but I’ve never seen anyone improve at a slow and steady pace.”

Cha Ming’s cup froze before it reached his lips. “Many thanks for the reminder, Daoist Silent Storm. It seems I need to learn to better control my aura.” He sighed. “Do you ever regret being so observant?”

“Observant?” Silent Storm asked. “It’s more like reading between the lines. You haven’t given off any specific energy fluctuation, but your behavior has been constantly changing. The way you carry yourself has gradually straightened, and your face has grown slightly less pale.” The bar was relatively empty, so the owner began tidying as he always did during quiet times. And speaking of quiet times, they were especially common nowadays. No one had come in or out of the wine house for the past several hours.

“The weather has been unusually calm of late,” Cha Ming noted. “I suppose that means there’ll be many people who wander out.”

“It’s also a good time for skirmishes between the different sects and sanctuaries,” Silent Storm said. “I’d imagine that any day now, there will be a call to arms.” In other words, the sanctuary would soon find a reason to send him out.

“The Puppet Lightning Sect,” Cha Ming said suddenly. “You seem to dislike them greatly.”

“We have our disagreements,” Silent Storm said reluctantly. “A few years back, it was me and two friends who ran this sanctuary. Now, it’s me and one friend and a plant from their sect. Of course, this happened after my dear friend met his untimely and very mysterious end.”

“Let me guess,” Cha Ming said. “He was a body cultivator.”

“He was a very powerful body cultivator, yes,” Silent Storm said. “And very compatible with the puppet lightning sect’s puppet lightning.”

“It’s interesting that they would pay so much attention to corpses,” Cha Ming said.

“It used to be monstrous demon corpses they asked for, but of late, they’ve become less selective,” Silent Storm said. “As a result, most of the demigod clans in the region have shuttered their gates. A few have also migrated over to the Sacred Earth Sect and the Blighted Heaven Sect.”

“I thought the Sacred Earth Sect and the Blighted Heaven Sect are fully supportive of the Puppet Lightning Sect’s recent activities,” Cha Ming said.

“They do say that, yes,” said Silent Storm. “And with good reason. The war has cost everyone dearly, and the Puppet Sect has sacrificed many puppets on the front lines for the good of the region. They might be aggressive, but their actions have done much to buoy people’s spirits. They have spent no small price defending us from the fiends, especially last outbreak.”

But was it worth it? That was the unsaid question. In Cha Ming’s opinion, the price was too steep. There were better ways to achieve similar results.

“Another drink?” Silent Storm asked when Cha Ming finished the bottle.

“No, I’m afraid I don’t have enough time,” Cha Ming said. “It’s about time I enter seclusion and heal my injuries.”

Silent Storm nodded. “If there is a mobilization, we’ll make sure to bump you to the bottom of the list. We can’t do much about Artificer Lei, but we have ways of fighting back.”

***

Seven incarnations sat in a lighting concentration circle inside the Clear Sky World. A violet lightning essence crystal lay at the center of the formation, spitting out large amounts of lightning onto each incarnation to refine their bodies.

They cultivated according to a method provided by Artificer Lei alongside the puppet lightning crystal. He had inspected it several times and did not find it deficient in the least bit. The bodies of all seven incarnations changed and optimized thanks to the puppet lightning, which resulted in a feedback loop with his energy pools. He’d only just started the process, and the blood contamination has lessened significantly.

It’s obviously a trap, Huxian sent to Cha Ming as they discussed his next actions. You know what you need to do? Throw that rock away and run. Or better yet, stay put and I’ll come rescue you. It’ll only take me a few days if I go through the teleportation formation in Oster’s territory.

And what about everyone else? Cha Ming asked. You’ve been holding things together in both our territories. What’s going to happen if our enemies attack while you’re gone?

Besides, Cha Ming had inspected the lightning crystal many times over and had yet to discover any traps in the crystal itself. Since the technique was safe, it probably meant that Artificer Lei had other means to locate him.

Are you sure you don’t want me to come over? Huxian asked.

I’m sure, Cha Ming answered.

We could hire Oster, Huxian said. It’s kind of his thing.

I’m not going to hire Oster, Cha Ming said.

Because he’s evil? Asked Huxian.

Because he might just turn on me if I let him know I’m in a bad way, Cha Ming said.

Fair point, Huxian said. He wouldn’t break contract, but he’d probably make a move on you after the contract was over.

Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, Cha Ming said. Just… give me time to test out this puppet lightning on my body. If I can clear out the rest of the righteous blood in my energy pools, I shouldn’t have any problems escaping.

But you know it’s a trap, Huxian said.

It’s obviously a trap, Cha Ming confirmed, I just don’t know what kind of trap. And since lightning crystal is fine and the technique is fine, I might as well use it.

I think you should toss the crystal, Huxian said. Just to be safe.

But if I toss the crystal, I won’t be able to clear my energy pools, Cha Ming said. Besides, odds are he’s still here. He’s probably waiting just outside this mountain, waiting for me to run.

True, said Huxian. But a bit of misdirection would probably throw him off.

I’ll be fine, Cha Ming said. I’m taking a calculated risk. I can feel that this lightning will be very helpful for me – not just to recover, but to grow stronger. I’ve never felt such a strong reaction to cultivation materials before.

Fine, Huxian said. You’re a big boy. If you want to dance with a bunch of puppet masters, go for it. Just make sure you call me if you run into any problems.

Will do, Cha Ming said.

Cha Ming increased the rate at which he absorbed puppet lighting from the crystal. Puppet Lightning was a very strange form of lightning, in that it clung to whatever substance it was injected into and puppetized it. Wherever puppet lightning fell, golems of all sorts would rise up and wander about to collect raw materials with which to improve themselves.

The Puppet Lightning Body Refinement Technique absorbed puppet lightning through one’s skin, forcing it through one’s flesh and deep into one’s marrows and bones. At the same time, it was necessary force the lightning through one’s veins and pump it through one’s hard, completing a cycle that continuously transformed one’s flesh and blood.

At first, the puppet lightning destroyed impurities. New flesh and new blood were produced in a continuous cycle. This was immediately reflected in Cha Ming’s energy pool, which were now a mottled mix of four different types speckled with gold and red righteous blood.

Eventually, Cha Ming’s flesh began absorbing the lightning to nourish itself. Violet lightning appeared inside Cha Ming’s energy pool, starting from his divine energy, then racing into his qi and spiritual energy pools.

Lightning was inherently a harmful substance. It rapidly depleted the three energy pools until only a small amount of each pool was left. Cha Ming then repeated the process, refining these three energies. With each cycle, fewer and fewer specks of righteous blood remained.

Encouraged by these results, Cha Ming began taking in larger quantities of lightning. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a limit to what puppet lightning could accomplish. The righteous blood in his energy pools was simply too difficult to complete eliminate with the amount of puppet lightning he had on hand.

Three days passed in the outside world, and in these three days, he managed to eliminate all but a few drops of righteous blood. He regained complete control over his qi and further strengthened his utilization of ten-colored energy. By the fifth day, his condition was better than before his encounter with Patriarch Blood Demon.

The puppet lightning crystal was quite dense, so in those three days he’d only used a tenth of a crystal. Since his progress had stalled, he began to slowly increase how much lightning he used with every cycle. The first day of the second week, he absorbed double the usual amount. The second day, triple, and the third day, quintuple. On the fourth day, a storm arrived, and he heard through one of his incarnations that they would soon be called to mobilize against an enemy sanctuary.

Not much time remained, so Cha Ming decided to take a gamble. He flooded his energy pool with a full tenth of a crystal’s worth of energy.  It took much longer for the lightning to clear out this time, and only one percent of his energy stores remained. The amount of righteous blood didn’t decrease, but his energy pools started glowing with a violet light.

One more time, Cha Ming thought. He recovered his qi once again and flooded his energy pool with another ten percent dose. The lightning glow intensified, and this time, a few tiny jolts of electricity remained to accompany the 108 azure specks of azure energy inside his energy pool.

A hint of understanding appeared in Cha Ming’s eyes. In the Azure Tempest Sect, they use wind to agitate their qi and blend their qi and spirit pools. Since wind could be used to bring things together, could lightning be used to forcefully mix his energies as well?

This time, Cha Ming didn’t fully recover his energy pools. He recovered a tenth of each pool before flooding them with a high concentration of lightning.

He repeated the process over and over, and every time, he looked out for the tiny jolts of electricity swimming around inside his divine energy, spiritual energy, and eight-colored qi.

The tiny lighting jolts lasted longer with every cycle until finally, it got to the point that they no longer faded. His energy pools no longer reduced in volume. And when he poured puppet lightning into his energy pools, they directly added themselves to these tiny jolts of electricity. He’d essentially become immune to puppet lightning!

The tiny wandering serpents of lightning energy greedily absorbed the remainder of the lightning essence crystal. They clashed and collided at the boundaries between the four pools, thereby promoting mixing at their boundaries. Thanks to this additional agitation, five percent of his divine energy, qi, and spiritual energy fused and became ten-colored energy, bringing his total fusion rate from 30% to 35%.

Cha Ming wanted to continue, but unfortunately, this was the last of the puppet lightning. And no matter how much he wished he had more of it, he wasn’t going to risk looking for Artificer Lei to get more.

Regardless, the experiment was a success. He had fully recovered his strength and had even increased it to some extent. Early law stitching cultivators were tricky to deal with, and he had no confidence in facing one head on, but if it was just fleeing, he did not anticipate any problems.

Now, it was only a matter of timing. He rested in his cultivation cave and waited for an opportunity.

***

The storms of the Puppet Lightning Region were notoriously dangerous, and few cultivators dared travel as lightning poured upon the lands like rain. Even storm pirates, who thrived on and collected storm energy to power their ships, were respectful of the storms and would never dare fly quickly.

The Puppet Lightning Sect, being overseer lightning towers and lightning-related technology in the region, naturally had the means to do so. Even so, they only did so when absolutely necessary.

The safest place for rogue cultivators during a storm was in a shelter, on the ground. But safety was a luxury Cha Ming couldn’t afford. When the storm struck, Cha Ming used an incarnation to bypass the sect’s protective formation, then quickly unfurled his Azure Tempest Wings and flew towards the Blood God Region at his highest speed.

As he travelled, Cha Ming kept an eye out for signs of pursuit. He wondered how Artificer Lei would track him – would it be karma, or other strange means?

Less than a half hour passed before he saw a violet flash heading his way. It wasn’t a ship or any entity Cha Ming was aware of, but it fast. It would be impossible to escape it at his current speed.

The safest way to travel during the storm as on the ground, but if he remained her, whatever was headed his way would surely catch up. So he made a difficult decision and flapped his Azure Tempest Wings with all his strength, launching himself directly into the storm clouds.

Lightning struck his body like waves in a rough ocean. If not for tempering his body with puppet lightning, he would have been reduced to ashes within minutes. But he ignored the repetitive lightning strikes and continued on his trajectory, until finally, he was above the clouds, in a place where few ships could reach.

Only then did he summoning the Azure Tempest Wings to glide above the lightning-filled clouds. Artificer Lei would no longer able to keep up at this speed.

He followed the storm clouds for the better part of an hour to arrive at the border of the Blood God Region. Unexpectedly, the journey was quite smooth; he only spotted a few pirates, but they were unable to keep up to his Azure Tempest Wings.

Overall, his escape was suspiciously easy. It made no sense given how bad his luck was.

And that was when he felt the karmic web twist. Not from misfortune, but from good old-fashioned tampering. Thousands of tiny purple pinpricks of purple lightning suddenly acted up inside his body, paralyzing him from the inside.

Cha Ming’s body froze up. The lightning dragons inside his energy pools twisted, freezing up his spiritual energy, his divine energy, and his eight-colored qi. Only his fused ten-colored energy was unaffected, but because of the way it was integrated into his body and techniques, he had no practical ways to use this energy.

Artificer Lei had not tampered with the puppet lightning. He had not tampered with the technique. Both of these things were genuinely wonderful things. Cha Ming did not know much about puppet lightning, and he realized now that he should have expected such a thing to happen given its name.

By refining his body with puppet lightning, Cha Ming had made himself into a puppet that could be controlled under the right circumstances.

Cha Ming immediately mobilized his destruction qi to try breaking the bonds but was unable to dispel what was effectively high-level curse.

He wanted to flap his wings, but couldn’t. He wanted to break his limit but was unable to. His wings were wrapped up in chains of violet lightning and refused to cooperate with him.

Cha Ming could only watch on in horror as he entered an uncontrolled descent through what remained of the storm clouds. Angry lightning bolts struck him and his Azure Tempest Wings, destroying the single set that he had.

Fortunately, the storm was almost completely spent, so he survived the descent. His charred body flew out of the storm clouds and fell towards the same mountain chain he’d found himself on upon arriving in the region.

The impact rendered Cha Ming completely unconscious. It was hours later that he regained some small amount of awareness. Artificer Lei had just arrived at the point of impact. Fortunately, Cha Ming had landed on a farmer’s field, opening up a hundred-meter-wide crater, and exposing the solid mountainous rock that he’d missed by only a few kilometers.

“What a waste,” Artificer Lei said, floating down into the crater and arriving beside Cha Ming’s body. “What bloody waste. A dead body is useful, but a living body makes for far better material.”

He dragged Cha Ming’s body out of the crater. One of his legs was missing, and both his arms had been blown off. Half his torso was also gone, and what remained had been scorched and savaged by lightning.

But Artificer Lei was clearly a meticulous person. He sprawled out Cha Ming’s body and began tallying the damage. He even placed a few drops of regenerant medicine onto his wounds as a formality, only to jump back in surprise when Cha Ming’s body drank it in greedily. “Wait – he’s alive?!”

Artificer Lei was invigorated by this discovery. He began fussing over the condition of his newly acquired material and applied what appeared to be precious ointment on every inch of Cha Ming’s body. It was enough to heal his lightning burns but not enough to regenerate his missing limbs.

“What tough body,” Artificer Lei muttered. “I knew it the moment I laid eyes on it. And that puppet lightning resonance – I’ve never seen better. I have never seen better crafting material for a puppet!”

The elder took out a long chain and wrapped it around Cha Ming’s torso. He then floated him onto the ship before floating off and heading southward.

It was an hour later when the elder finally spoke again. “I know you’re awake,” Artificer Lei said. “Speak or don’t speak, I don’t care. I just want you to know that resisting is pointless. Not only are you puppetized, but the medicine I gave you is a potent poison. It will further lock you down. Self-destruction is no longer possible.”

Cha Ming did not reply. He continued to play dead. But Artificer Lei was not put off. He seemed used to the situation.

“You should feel honored, you know,” Artificer Lei said, clearing his throat. “I’m one of the best artisans in the sect. With your body, I should be able to craft a powerful enough puppet that I’ll stand a chance in the next grand elder selection.

The elder was clearly used to speaking with puppets and corpses, so he continued his monologue. He spoke of the Puppet Lightning Sect and crafting. Cha Ming paid only passing attention to the contents, as he was currently quite nervous about the situation. He consulted with Huxian about their next move.

It wasn’t that Cha Ming couldn’t escape. He could have done that long before Artificer Lei had arrived. This wasn’t a disaster, he and Huxian had decided, but an opportunity. Cha Ming needed puppet lightning and other resources, and the Puppet Lightning Sect was the best place to get them.